Au Pairs - Playing With A Different Sex - 180g Vinyl LP

2026

Playing with a Different Sex was the debut album by seminal postpunk band Au Pairs, released in 1981. Described retrospectively by AllMusic as 'one of the great post-punk records', a review by Record Mirror on it's release said the band's 'critique of all forms of possession and sexual stereotyping assumes a devastating power'. Themes include sexual politics and the torture of women imprisoned in Northern Ireland during The Troubles of the 1970s, as well as a stunning cover of David Bowie's 'Repetition' about domestic violence. It peaked at No. 33 in the UK, and features the single 'It's Obvious', which reached No. 37 on the US Club Play Singles chart

John Dougan - AMG review

Opening with the tongue-in-cheek "We're So Cool," the Au Pairs' debut record is a stunner, from Lesley Woods' scratchy guitar and declamatory vocals to lead guitarist Paul Foad's brittle soloing. This is an uncompromising, defiant record: gender roles are turned upside down, as are theories about sex and sexuality, and hetero- and homosexual relationships are put under a microscope. Similarly, the tense political situation in Northern Ireland is harrowingly addressed in "Armagh," which details Tory-sanctioned torture and sexual abuse of wrongly imprisoned Irish women. An unflinching look at the world, Playing with a Different Sex is one of the great, and perhaps forgotten, post-punk records.